This is what my bare root trees looked like after unpacking them from the box they came in. They were wrapped in bubble wrap with a gel that provided the roots water during shipping. I haved 4 bundles like this on my first order and planted them 2 days after they were delivered. It was my first time getting bare root trees. Following the instructions, I soaked the roots for a couple hours before planting them. After watching a few hours of online videos on how to best plant trees, I decided to go with the minimum soil amendments. I had a little compost and added it to each tree but mostly used native soil. I dug a hole deep enough for the roots depending on the type of tree with a few inches of loose dirt all around. I then covered the roots ensuring that not to cover any graft unions. With lots of though I decided to go with short stakes for support. There were many "experts" on the internet with every correct stake height but I decided on the low stakes. My thought was this would promote thicker more supportive or natural trunks. I planted about 50 trees on the first round and all but one stayed up straight. The only one that had a problem was a black locust that grew so fast that first year I think it out grew its roots. I pulled that one tree back in place and staked it with a t-post and it is growing good now. I must say that the bare root trees from a nursery have out paced all the big box potted trees. I have continued to purchase bare root and planted them all this way. This works best for me.
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Our fist goal was to get some trees in the ground. First we decided where we wanted our buildings and ponds. The next step in our design was to decide on how things should be planted. I wanted to utilize the water catching effects of the terrace swales. This was important because I don't have a usable water source on the property yet. We decided to plant the swales on the north west side of the property. We started with fruit trees and support trees. We picked a good mix of fruit trees and put in an order from a local nursery. Most of the trees were bare root trees. For support trees we chose black locust. Locust are a legume. Legumes put nitrogen in the ground. Locust also have a beautiful smelling flower that the bees love. We couldn't afford to get all the trees we wanted to start with. We got what we could afford at the time. After planting, we top dressed all the trees with compost followed by a couple layers of cardboard then straw on top. This how we started. I later watched a film by Stefan Sobkowiak called "The Permaculture Orchard: Beyond Organic". I wish I had watched that first but it wasn't out when I started. I will try and follow his basic ideas in all future plantings. Each terrace has multiple types of fruit trees. The first planting had pears, apples, peaches, nectarine, persimmon, plums, mulberry, fig, cherry, apricot, asian pear, blueberries and loquat. Not all of them did good and some were eaten by the animals but most are thriving. We learned the hard way that we had to wrap the trees with guards. That didn't stop the deer. I am still working on that problem. I will get some before and after planting pictures out next.
Our makeshift road wasn't very good. So, we had a proper drainage tile put in and a dump truck load of clay packed on the road. Not long after we noticed unwanted traffic through our woods and on our land. No real damage, just few empty cans. We had to put a fence in sooner than we wanted. This is our temporary fence. We put it in 5 months after purchasing the property and we are still using it.
Once it was mowed we need a way to access it besides the neighbors yard. We used flags and to mark out a road through the woods that would allow us to save most of the bigger trees. Then I cleared it mostly with a bush axe and machete. I did have some help with the big trees. My father-in-law has a chainsaw and was nice enough to help me the big ones. There is a wet weather creek that runs across the front wooded part of the land. At first I constructed a makeshift bridge out of center blocks and wood. This worked fine for a while but eventually the center blocks broke and had to be replaced. We made due until we could afford to purchase some drainage tiles and clay for fill.
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Kevin HarrisI'm building a working homestead with the intent that it will provide health food for my family and yours. This will be a place for you to come pick your food and connect with where it was grown. Archives
February 2017
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